


take a chance

by rainbowrabblerouser



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Break Up, Canon Era, Divorce, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia and Jaskier | Dandelion are Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon's Parents, Getting Back Together, Inspired by The Parent Trap (1998), M/M, Post-Break Up, Stand-Up Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:15:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23533666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowrabblerouser/pseuds/rainbowrabblerouser
Summary: Ciri was educated by Jaskier's jokes, Geralt's expressions, and Mamma Mia!She is the genius of the family.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 1
Kudos: 64





	take a chance

**Author's Note:**

> "Take A Chance" - ABBA
> 
> I, too, am a child of almost divorce.
> 
> Inspired by Pete Davidson's stand-up set about Ariana Grande

“Can you imagine if I did that? He broke up with me! Then, I spray paint myself platinum and tell the gossip ‘Oh, sorry, but nice penis though!’ What a wreck!”

Ciri laughed the loudest as always. Her dad’s stand-up shows always made her laugh.

She needed something funny to distract her from her fathers’ divorce. 

As a child of divorce himself, Jaskier knew it was not easy.

So he would take her to his shows and try to cheer her up all the while, he fought off any lingering thoughts about Geralt and his face and hands and everything below his waist.

It was not easy at all.

But damn it, he would be the best single dad in the realm.

Ciri knew he was tired and heartbroken, but she had known it was coming.

Geralt would see her every few weeks and ask how Jaskier was, but she never had a good answer. He still was in love with him and it was a sad mutual thing.

Universal law.

Buttercups don’t wilt around witchers.

And lion cubs don’t stay in the meadow.

Waiting to be found.

At least that was all over Geralt’s diary.

Snooping is bad, but she deserved a better explanation than “Hm.” and whatever Jaskier would publicly yell about during his stand-up sets and then his concerts for the elderly.

“Please tell me you are not wearing that.”

“It’s vintage.” 

Ciri had found Jaskier’s old jester hat and she thought it was hilarious because he used to wear it when he was the jester in Cintra. Until he was kicked out for screwing with the chef’s husband. 

He used to be there for every celebration. Her birthdays. Her grandmother’s.

She always thought he was a riot. He was the funniest man in the world.

It was just sad to see him so downtrodden over her papa.

He wasn’t really worth it, in her opinion.

They always fought; she suspected he’d be back in a month, but he did not come back.

It was heart-wrenching.

“Can you all applaud my little girl? It’s her birthday.”

She felt warmth from Jaskier. It contrasted the coldness from Geralt.

He was late. Again.

When the door opens, Jaskier stops playing and gets off the stage. 

He slumps into the booth with Ciri and then orders more food.

Mostly desserts he can drown his sorrows in. Jaskier puts his head on her shoulder and she pats his back. Sometimes, she felt like the adult in the family.

Ciri is supposed to be the teenager. 

So why was she raising them?

Geralt pulls her into a hug and greets her with a kiss on the forehead.

“Here’s your present.”

He pulls out a sword and Jaskier shrieks like a girl.

“Geralt.” He gains his composure when he sees him and clears his throat.

“Jaskier. Lo–”

“No more cutesy nicknames. We’re divorced parents celebrating our daughter’s birthday. We are not lovers, we are friends, and you need to get the cake.”

“Fine.”

They exchange cold looks and then it was Ciri’s turn to rest her head on the table.

Her party hat clattered onto the table and Jaskier patted her head.

“I know, sweetheart.”

Geralt scoffs and gets away.

He gets the damn cake and the sparklers and just pretends everything is okay. Like his former lover wasn’t over there with their daughter and that he still wasn’t in love with his dumb ass. Pretend he didn’t think his stubble and his new glasses and perpetual bedhead didn’t make him hot under all of the leather.

It was so dumb. He was yearning for him like some lovelorn teenager. 

Like an idiot.

He was here for his kid, nothing else.

So when Ciri catches him looking for too long, she pushes him and he snaps to look down at her. She rolls her eyes and he pokes her face.

He still loves him. But of course, he won’t say it.

Jaskier was the one with the words for everything.

If he wanted him back, he wouldn’t turn him away.

Ciri’s birthday is to be the most fun she has ever had. She is their princess. 

Of course, she forces them to sing.

“Please.”

They can’t say no, so there they were.

Singing with his ex-husband.

Talk about a parent trap.

She was really the smartest one.

“Here’s one called, oh, really, Ciri? ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’?”

Of course, she chose one featuring Sir Elton John.

Living legend.

Gay icon.

Ciri clapped really loudly as she pushed them. 

No turning back.

Jaskier is of course Kiki. Geralt is Elton.

It’s a mess because Geralt thinks he can’t sing when he obviously can.

Ciri wished she could record it. 

They strike up the band and she whoops and laughs as they start.

“Never again, my dear child.”

“Yeah. No more.”

Ciri has a good birthday and sleeps well that night.

“Hey,” Jaskier says before he can stop himself.

“Hm?”

“Can you, uh, stay?” 

Jaskier knows it always ends the same way, but he misses him too much.

He makes the mistake of taking him to bed.

The next day, he’s surprised he hadn’t disappeared.

“Jaskier.”

“Huh?”

“Do you want to try again?”

Geralt was really under him, begging him to give him another chance. How can he say–

“No.”

“What? Come on,” Geralt looked up at him.

“So this is where we’re at? Geralt. It’s been thirty years and now you’re doing this?”

“I don’t–”

“Of course, you don’t get it. Geralt, I don’t know what to say. We had our shot.”

He puts a hand to his lips. Geralt shuts up and looks at him.

Jaskier looks down at those yellow eyes and wishes he had never let him back in.

Why did he still long for him? Love him?

What had he done to deserve this?

“I’m always going to love you.”

“I know.”

He sends him out with one last kiss. 

Ciri hears her father leave again and her dad’s heart break.

“What happened?”

“He left. Again.”

Jaskier spends the next month trying to move on, but everything reminds him of Geralt.

The flowers he used to give him, the songs he’d sing, the joke he’d laugh at, just Ciri.

“Why can’t you just stay away?”

He cursed out at Geralt when he returned again.

  
“Because I’m still in love with you, bard.”

“No. Don’t even try anymore. You can see our daughter, but no. Stop…”

Geralt continued over and over.

Until one day, he brings someone with him.

“Jaskier. Hello.”

This was the last straw.

“Why’d you bring this whore to my house? There is a child here.”

“I have a name.”

“Yennefer is not a whore.”

Jaskier scoffs as he shields his daughter from seeing her.

“Well, she sure as hell is not staying here.”

Ciri had never met Yennefer, but from what she was told, her dad hates her. 

So much.

So much so he had written a song about her that became a hit.

“Mages are all awful, Ciri. Promise me you will never be friends with one.”

“Sure, Dad.”

Yennefer looked mean. Like she would never be a mother. She seemed really cold.

  
Maybe that’s why she liked Geralt.

Jaskier was always so warm. He was like the beautiful sun, shining on Ciri on a nice day.

Geralt was the moon, protecting her during the day and night from afar.

All Yennefer seemed like was a dying star. Terrifying, but you can’t help but look.

“Who is this?”

“This is Ciri. Our daughter, not yours. And she is going to be late for school.”

Jaskier dropped her off with her special lunch and then went back home to hide.

Everywhere Yennefer went was always cursed. 

Geralt had the audacity to break up with him and say that Jaskier had attracted trouble when little miss nightmare was right there.

He would not have his child tangled in whatever magical nonsense was going to endanger them. They had a good life going. Nothing would change it.

“Get her out of here, Geralt. I suppose she is yours now. I don’t care. Just try and think about what is good for our kid.”

“She’s– we’re not– ugh. I am here to apologize. She is here because I can’t get rid of her. Please just be nice.”

“Oh, you could get rid of me. And our daughter. But when a bitch follows you around, it’s perfectly fine. I see where you stand, Geralt.”

Geralt says nothing as he chews him out and throws his leftover clothes at him and then shuts the door in his face. Jaskier had to go make dinner anyway.

He’d also make some sweets to distract.

Ciri returns home with some friends. 

They all freak out in joy over the smell of chocolate.

“Dad? Where did Papa go?”

“Oh, off with some wh– oh, hey everyone. Who wants cake?”

Ciri’s friends loved Jaskier. He was the dad they all wished they had. Most of them are bastards so Jaskier welcomed them anytime with food and advice.

They even went to his shows and laughed loudly at his jokes.

Their lives there are nice. He would not have Geralt ruin it.

Over his dead body.

“Ciri, dear, can you help with the dishes?”

She starts cleaning as Jaskier walks her friends out. Just when he flops onto the couch, there’s a knock at the door, so he gets back up.

Ciri hears the door open and shut. Then there’s more knocking and then Jaskier yells, “Leave us alone!”

“Is it him? Can I talk to him?”

“Fine.”

Geralt is alone when she opens the door. 

“Hello.”

“Ciri.”

“He’s really upset with you. Has been for months.”

Geralt looks down to the ground in shame. How’d he end up here?

He used to be the more fearsome warrior in the realm, merciless, crude, strong.

Now he was grovelling to a bard and their kid.

How does time change you?

“Can you convince him?”

“Do you think I haven’t already tried?”

“Well, I’m not giving up on him nor you.”

With that, Ciri shuts the door and then goes to bed.

She had been joining Jaskier because she would get nightmares about fires and death and Cintra burning to the ground with her grandmother at the top of the tower.

Jaskier was always there for her. He was the best father.

It was time for her to be a good kid.

  
  


Ciri takes Jaskier out to a restaurant. He had been working so hard. 

So she gave him a break...and nearly a heart attack.

“Can you please explain to me why he’s here?”

“Well, at least he’s alone.”

That he was. 

Guess things did not work out with Yennefer.

Maybe she cursed him and then he yelled at her and broke her heart on a mountain.

Preposterous. 

She didn’t have a heart.

Jaskier just knew that she probably had never been dumped. 

You try something new everyday.

“Fine.”

Geralt pretends not to notice him as he passes by with Ciri’s hand in his.

“Go and find us a seat.”

He lets go.

“Geralt.”

“Jaskier.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not.”

Well, this was going well.

Ciri’s plan was flowing perfectly.

Soon, it would work and life would be less chaotic.

Manipulating your parents wasn’t a horrible thing to do if you were trying to do good.

At least her friends told her that.

“This is not going to work.”

“I agree.”

It worked.

Guess Ciri was a genius.

And her fathers really were still in love.

Jaskier let him stay one more night. Then, the one after that, and then after…

Geralt had nearly picked the entire meadow for him.

The farmers did not like that.

But Ciri did not care.

Her dad was happy again.

“My ex-husband told me to stop making jokes about him. Said it was too embarrassing. But he was already like that without me. So….”

Ciri laughed and pushed her Papa’s shoulder.

He sighed and put an arm around her.

All was pretty well.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: @rainbowrabblerouser


End file.
